The Malawi Integrated In-Service Teacher Education Project: An Analysis of the Curriculum and Its Delivery in the Colleges (CIE, 2000, 75 p.)

(introduction...)

Multi-Site Teacher Education Research Project (MUSTER)

List of Abbreviations

Abstract

Chapter 1: Issues and Context

Chapter 2: The Curriculum Strategy

Chapter 3: The Teacher Education Classroom

Chapter 4: Evaluations and Conclusions

References

List of Appendices

Abstract

This report focuses on the MIITEP (Malawi Integrated Inservice
Teacher Education Project) curriculum in Malawi. This is a crash programme
designed to certify some 18,000 unqualified primary teachers over 2 years,
through a combination of 4 months in a residential college and 20 months
teaching under supervision while studying at a distance. It was also intended to
introduce more learner-centred and interactive teaching methods in both colleges
and schools.

The study describes the programme and the colleges, and analyses
the curriculum documents. Observational data is used to illustrate in more
detail how the curriculum was actually delivered in the four subjects of
English, Maths, Science and Educational Foundation Studies. Interviews are
analysed, together with some survey data, to find out how tutors and students
saw the programme as a whole.

Findings include the following points. There was a clear tension
between the progressive aims of MITTEP and the didactic and
authoritarian ways in which it was implemented. Some of the reasons include: the
lack of basic teaching materials, especially for science or practical work; the
failure to support the tutors; the mismatch between the curriculum and student
needs, as well as cultural patterns and expectations about teaching and
learning. The aims of training a large number of teachers in the shortest
possible time are probably incompatible with the aim of producing and supporting
innovative teachers equipped to act as change
agents.